VVSS Holding

Performance indicators

2023: Revenue growth by a third to RUB 23.01 billion

LLC "Air Gate of the Northern Capital" (VVSS, operator of the St. Petersburg airport "Pulkovo") in 2023 received revenue in the amount of 23.01 billion rubles against 17.23 billion rubles a year earlier. The company's net profit during this time rose from 4.8 billion to 5.27 billion rubles. This is evidenced by the data of the Kontur. Focus service, which TAdviser got acquainted with in December 2024.

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Pulkovo

In 2023, Pulkovo served 20.4 million people (an increase of 12%), becoming the second largest passenger airport in the country after the Moscow Sheremetyevo.

Among airports with a passenger traffic of more than 15 million per year, we are the only ones in the country who exceeded the 2019 figures. Then we served 19.6 million people, in 2023 - 20.4 million, - said Leonid Sergeyev, General Director of the Northern Capital Air Gate company.

On domestic flights, 16.9 million passengers were served. The most popular Russian destinations were: Moscow, Sochi, Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg and Kazan.

3.5 million passengers were served on international routes. The most popular were flights to Antalya, Istanbul, Minsk, Dubai and Yerevan.

In 2023, 12 new airlines began to operate from Pulkovo Airport, 10 new destinations were opened. For the first time in history, flights were launched to Abu DhabiEtihad Airways and to Algeria Air Algerie (the first direct regular flight to Africa from St. Petersburg).

History

2024: Oman-based Orbit Aviation buys 25% of Pulkovo Airport

On December 9, 2024, it became known that the Omani company Orbit Aviation acquired 25% of VVSS Holding LLC, the parent company of the Pulkovo airport operator, from the German holding Fraport AG. The new investor is a subsidiary of Oman's Saturn government fund.

According to Kommersant, Orbit Aviation is 99.9% controlled by Galaxy Aviation, owned by the Saturn Foundation. The fund-related company Maaden International Investment previously acquired 23.9% of gold mining company Polymetal from ICT Holding Alexander Nesis.

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Unsplash

VVSS Holding LLC, registered by decree of the President of Russia at the end of 2023, owns 100% of Northern Capital Air Gate LLC, the Pulkovo operator. Previously, the operator belonged to the Cypriot company Thalita Trading, the largest shareholders of which were VTB structures (50%) and Fraport (35.5%).

In 2022, Fraport announced its intention to withdraw from VVSS capital. According to estimates of that period, the cost of the share of the German holding was €111 million. According to VTB, Fraport notified the bank as a member of the VVSS about the transaction to sell the share to a third party, and the bank did not object to the transaction.

Elina Kulieva, Senior Director for Corporate Ratings at Expert RA, notes that the arrival of a Middle East partner can contribute to strategic integration, expand the geography of flights and attract foreign carriers.

At the end of 2023, Pulkovo Airport served a record 20.4 million passengers, becoming the second most passenger-carrying airport in Russia after Sheremetyevo. AKRAAlexander Gushchin, director of the corporate ratings group, emphasizes that the airport has become one of the most dynamically growing since the beginning of the pandemic.

The interest of investors from the Persian Gulf in the Russian aviation industry is not new: in 2018, Qatar Airways planned to acquire 25% of Vnukovo airport, although the closure of that transaction was not reported.^[1]

2023: Creation of VVSS Holding with an authorized capital of 169 billion rubles to manage Pulkovo Airport

On December 18, 2023, the VVSS Holding company, created to manage the St. Petersburg Pulkovo airport, was registered in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRUL). The size of the authorized capital of the new LLC is 169 billion rubles.

On December 1, 2023, against the background of the ongoing conflict on, it was To Ukraine announced that it was Government of Russia creating VVSS Holding LLC to manage the airport. Pulkovo The President Russia Vladimir Putin ordered the transfer of all rights to manage St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport from foreign shareholders, including the German the company Fraport AG and the Qatari welfare fund, by transferring their shares to a new Russian company.

Existing investors, which also include a consortium with Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment, will retain their stakes but will not be able to vote.

As Forbes writes with reference to the extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Ilya Shabalin has been appointed general director of VVSS Holding. The holding's owners included 13 companies: Business Finance (16.79%), VTB Infrastructure Holding (8.22%), Promising Industrial and Infrastructure Technologies - 7 (2,33%), Fraport AG (25%), F3 Holding LLC (24,99%), Thirthy seventh investment company (7,99%), Nomeliar LTD (7,48%), Ayar international investments company (3,5%), Bahrain mumtalakat holding company (1,26%), Felmen ventures limited (1,05%), Zamoralo holdings limited (1,04%), Co-investment partnership V (0,16%) и Mevelida LTD (0,02%).

From the government decree it follows that the decision to transfer control over the management company from foreign to Russian legal entities is due to a violation of obligations by foreign companies, as a result of which there was a threat to the national interests and economic security of Russia.

In mid-September 2023, the head of VTBANDRAY Kostin talked about the plans of the German Fraport to sell his stake in the Pulkovo operator. According to the banker, the company had to decide on the sale by the end of 2023. In March 2022, Fraport said that the company was considering options for leaving the VVSS shareholders. In May of the same year, the head of the company, Stefan Schulte, said that the holding would not be able to do this until 2025 in accordance with the terms of the concession agreement. Then Fraport estimated its share in Pulkovo's operator at €111 million.^[2]

2021: TAdviser interview with HR Director Maria Yermak

In December 2021, Maria Yermak, HR Director of Air Gate of the Northern Capital, spoke in an interview with TAdviser about the introduction of the BOSS-Personnel system in the company. Read more here.

2013

• The TOP leading Russian airlines of Pulkovo Airport in 2013 included Russia, Aeroflot, Transaero, S7, UTair. 8,021,359 people used their services, which is 16.4% more than in 2012. The largest international carriers in 2013 were Lufthansa, Emirates, Uzbekistan Hawo Yulari, Air Berlin, Air France. For 12 months, 1,135,359 passengers used their services, which is 2% more than in 2012. New airlines in 2013 were East Air, New Livingston Spa, Kostroma AP, International Al of Ukraine, UTair-Ukraine, Tunisia Air, Iberia Express, Icelandair, JSC ATK Yamal, Pskovavia, VIM-air and Air Armenia.

• On December 24, 2013, the base carrier of Pulkovo Airport, OJSC Rossiya Airlines, which is part of the Aeroflot group of companies, reached 4.5 million passengers transported in 2013.

• The St. Petersburg airline Transaero continued to increase the volume of traffic and expand the route network of flights operated from Pulkovo Airport. In accordance with the Transaero summer program, the airline operated flights to 29 destinations and, in addition to previously operated flights, opened 11 new ones. For the first time in history, Transaero began to constantly operate flights from Pulkovo on its largest aircraft Boeing 747-400, which can accommodate up to 522 passengers.

• According to the results of twelve months of 2013, the passenger traffic of Pulkovo Airport amounted to 12,854,366 people, which is 15.2% more than in the same period in 2012. Passenger traffic on international airlines for the twelve months of 2013 was 7,024,182, an increase of 14.1% on the number of passengers carried in the twelve months of 2012. Passenger traffic on domestic airlines amounted to 5,830,184 people, which is 16.6% more than in the same period in 2012. The number of takeoff and landing operations in the twelve months of 2013 increased by 9.4% to 137,480 units.

• The absolute record for the air harbor of St. Petersburg was 604 flights served on June 19, 2013, on the first day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. In total, during the forum, from June 19 to 22, the airport served 2180 flights and 199,264 passengers.

• Shell and Aerofuels began supplying aviation kerosene for airlines at Pulkovo Airport. The company became the second operator in the aviation fuel supply market of the airport of St. Petersburg.

• The 40th anniversary was celebrated by the Pulkovo-1 terminal.

• For the first time in history, direct air traffic between Russia and Iceland was opened at Pulkovo Airport. Icelandair, Iceland's flagship carrier, began operating direct scheduled flights from St. Petersburg to Reykjavik. For the first time, Russians got the opportunity to get into the country of glaciers and geysers in four hours, without tedious transfers.

• The innovations also affected the structure of the company. A single Airport Operational Management Center was created, the main task of which is to coordinate and speed up the processes of servicing aircraft and passengers, as well as ensure uninterrupted operational management of the airport's operational activities in the event of emergency situations.

• A contractor has been selected to develop the second phase of airport development. It became the London Architectural Bureau Pascall + Watson Limited, which will develop a plan for the further expansion of the airport complex, the development of the airfield zone and the forecourt.

• The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) conducted a study in 2013 on the attitude of Pulkovo visitors to airport services. The results of the study showed that the respondents highly appreciate the work of the airport staff: 76% of respondents gave an excellent/good rating. Most visitors (91%) noted that they were ready to use the services of the Pulkovo-2 terminal or a temporary pavilion near the new terminal during the reconstruction of Pulkovo-1. About 65% of respondents are ready to pay a little more (by 2-3%) for a ticket in order to be able to use the new terminal where comfortable conditions will be created. Aeroexpress (42%), metro (37%) and personal motor vehicles (31%) were the most frequently mentioned preferred modes of transport that passengers would like to use to/from the airport. Taxis and buses were named in 22% and 20% of cases, respectively.

• On December 4, 2013, the new passenger Terminal-1 of Pulkovo Airport received the first passengers. The first flight was made by Rossiya Airlines to Dusseldorf.

• LLC "Air Gate of the Northern Capital" was among the ten largest employers in St. Petersburg, offering their employees the best social package, according to the international company Morgan Hunt.

• The Pulkovo Airport equipment modernization program continued. Almost 340 million rubles were invested in 2013 in updating special vehicles, the use of which will improve the level of service and the quality of passenger service. The airport fleet was replenished with new apron buses, luggage tractors, a control and measuring device for measuring the clutch coefficient on the runway, bulldozers and auto graders, water and sewage machines and other special vehicles.

• In 2013, new flights from Pulkovo Airport were opened: Irkutsk Yerevan, Vilnius, Magnitogorsk, Gabala (), Azerbaijan Nha Trang (), Vietnam Apatity, Pskov, Vologda, Bryansk, Geneva, Tyumen Tehran, Cheboksary, Madrid Reykjavik, Budapest, Kostroma, Kulyab (), Ivanovo Kos Tajikistan (), Kalamata Greece Greece (), Alexandropolis (Greece), Kaviatos (Greece.

2010: VTB Capital, Germany's Fraport and Greece's Copelouzos begin airport management

The company is an international consortium of VTB Capital, Fraport AG, the world's leading airport operator headquartered in Frankfurt, and the Greek investment group Copelouzos.

Since April 29, 2010, LLC Air Gate of the Northern Capital, under a public-private partnership agreement, has been managing the operational activities of Pulkovo Airport. Priority tasks in the work of the consortium are the reconstruction of the airport: the construction of a new international passenger terminal, the modernization of the Pulkovo-1 passenger terminal, the reconstruction and construction of technical facilities of the airport, the development of commercial infrastructure. The implementation of the project will allow the airport to provide a level of service equivalent to the IATA "C" standard and will assign the airport the status of the largest in the Baltic region.

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